Downtown LA Housing Construction: A Complete Listing - Page 54

LAMetroGuy · #**1061** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 3:43 PM**

Plans Build for Downtown L.A.
Moinian Group expects to put up two condo towers, restaurants and shops on a four-acre parcel by Staples Center.
By Roger Vincent, Times Staff Writer
August 22, 2006

Efforts to make the Staples Center area of downtown Los Angeles a hub for housing, retail and entertainment got a boost Monday when a New York developer announced plans to build two condominium towers, shops and restaurants across the street from the arena.

Moinian Group, one of the country's largest privately held real estate firms, said it paid $80 million for four acres at the corner of 11th and Figueroa streets and plans two residential towers of 45 stories and 33 stories with more than 700 units combined. The land, sold by Staples owner Anschutz Entertainment Group, was previously slated to be developed as housing by KB Home and Lennar Corp. It is across the street diagonally from the $2.5-billion LA Live development under construction north of Staples.

"We have a great deal of faith in the redevelopment of downtown Los Angeles and we think we can add to what is happening in a significant way," said Oskar Brecher, director of development at Moinian, which has major luxury high-rise residential and hotel projects in New York.

The company expects to break ground in 2007 and complete the nearly 2 million-square-foot project within three years. It was founded in 1990 by Joseph Moinian, who leveraged his earnings in the fashion industry to acquire loft buildings in Manhattan. Today, the company owns and manages more than $8 billion in residential, retail and hotel properties including the former Downtown Athletic Club in New York, home of the Heisman Trophy.

KB and Lennar's planned project unraveled after KB withdrew to instead form a partnership with AEG to develop a hotel and condo tower at L.A. Live.

Moinian's residential towers would house three types of units: lofts that could include condominiums, penthouses and so-called live-work units that could house small businesses. The target buyers are young professionals who work downtown. Prices are likely to range from $500,000 to $2 million.

At street level would be 250,000 square feet of retail space earmarked for a specialty grocery store, health club, shops and restaurants.

Several buyers bid on the property, said broker Rich Mayo of O'Donnell/Atkins, who represented Moinian in the deal.

"It demonstrates there is a lot of confidence in downtown," Mayo said, even as residential builders have been pulling back in other regions.

Moinian also plans to develop condominiums and perhaps a small hotel at a nearby site it recently acquired at 808 S. Olive St., Brecher said. That project would include 250 to 300 condos and cost as much as $100 million.

Partnering with Moinian on the Los Angeles projects is investor Henry Shahery, a partner at Miami-based Cabi Developers, which is a subsidiary of GICSA of Mexico City. Other downtown projects are being considered by the team, Shahery said.

"It's a growing market and we see opportunity," he said.

AEG, the developer of Staples Center and L.A. Live, has been selling land in the area with the intent that it be used for upscale housing. Developers have completed one condominium tower and have three more under construction on former AEG property.

AEG is the sports and entertainment subsidiary of the Anschutz Co., which is owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz. Among AEG's properties are Home Depot Center in Carson and Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas. It is developing arenas in London, Berlin and Kansas City and owns the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and four Major League soccer franchises.

The company also has increased the housing component it is building at L.A. Live to about 2,000 apartments and condos by reducing planned office space and other uses, bringing the total number of housing units planned around the arena to about 3,000.

The strategy, said AEG Vice President Ted Tanner, "is to build a vibrant residential community — and add a lot more patrons for our restaurants, clubs and other venues" at L.A. Live.

The tourist-oriented "sports-entertainment" hub is slated to have a 54-story hotel and condo tower, 7,100-seat live performance theater, broadcast facilities, a 14-screen movie theater and nearly a dozen restaurants and clubs.

Excavation of the L.A. Live site is underway and completion is expected in phases starting in fall 2007. Tanner said AEG hoped to start work next year with co-developer KB Home on the hotel and condo portion of the project that is expected to house a JW Marriott and a Ritz-Carlton with a combined total of 1,000 rooms.

LosAngelesSportsFan · #**1062** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 5:19 PM**

There is a render in the Print Edition of the LA TIMES. someone needs to find it online!

LAMetroGuy · #**1063** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 5:24 PM**

Hows the render? Similar to the old Fig Central or is the orientation of the towers different?

LosAngelesSportsFan · #**1064** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 5:52 PM**

here is the scan

LA420 · #**1065** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 6:01 PM**

Here is the rendering from the LA Times sorry but its really poor qualtiy picture. But pretty much this is it black and white, I wish they had it in color. The bulding sort of look like the building on sunset and Vine but just bigger

but its still an early rendering so hopefully it will look better. Sorry again for the poor quality pic.

LAMetroGuy · #**1066** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 6:02 PM**

That looks very similar to the Lennar KB Urban Fig Central project... thanks for scanning this and posting!

LA420 · #**1067** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 6:03 PM**

hehehehehehe

you beat me to it well at least your pic came out damn i dont know what happend with mine, hum put insert pic. oh well well at least we got a pic now

LAMetroGuy · #**1068** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 8:17 PM**

Here is a close up picture, I noticed that Moinian Group is calling this project LA Central:

Quixote · #**1069** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 8:26 PM**

Okay, now it's time for the Holiday Inn to go. It's literally surrounded by new projects and sits directly across from LA Live. Also I wonder what's planned for the parking lot next to the Holiday Inn. Both the Holiday Inn and the parking lot shouldn't sit there untouched for much longer.

LosAngelesBeauty · #**1070** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 9:03 PM**

Yeah, it does look similar huh?

That's a good thing, since there is no need to reinvent the wheel. I do think that they should add more LED billboards though. Esp. on the side of the tallest tower to really give the area visual height. In Times Square, LED lights wrap entire buildings up to 40 stories tall. It makes you feel like you're totally immersed in that scene.

Now that Fig Central is catercorner to LA Live, we need to complete the area by building on that surface lot by Liberty Grill. Imagine a 30-something story tower with a vertical shopping center at the bottom. The facade would also have LED lights so that a person standing at the corner of Figueroa and 11th Street would be literally SURROUNDED by gleaming towers and lights!

ocman · #**1071** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 9:17 PM**

From the looks of the initial pic, it looks SOOO much better and exciting in terms of urbanity than Anschutz's development.

LAMetroGuy · #**1072** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 9:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LosAngelesBeauty

Yeah, it does look similar huh?

That's a good thing, since there is no need to reinvent the wheel. I do think that they should add more LED billboards though. Esp. on the side of the tallest tower to really give the area visual height. In Times Square, LED lights wrap entire buildings up to 40 stories tall. It makes you feel like you're totally immersed in that scene.

Now that Fig Central is catercorner to LA Live, we need to complete the area by building on that surface lot by Liberty Grill. Imagine a 30-something story tower with a vertical shopping center at the bottom. The facade would also have LED lights so that a person standing at the corner of Figueroa and 11th Street would be literally SURROUNDED by gleaming towers and lights!

I agree.... big time! Also, I think the new name is LA Central

RAlossi · #**1073** Posted **Aug 22, 2006, 10:55 PM**

So if I've got this straight, "LA Central" is replacing the former "Figueroa Central" development; correct? I'm starting to get so damn confused with all of these new things!

Gotta keep track of the projects by Related, CIM, Moinian, AEG, Lennar, Astani, Meruelo Maddux, KB Urban...

Now, where is Concerto, again?

EDIT: nevermind... 9th and Fig.

luckyeight · #**1074** Posted **Aug 23, 2006, 4:14 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

Okay, now it's time for the Holiday Inn to go. It's literally surrounded by new projects and sits directly across from LA Live. Also I wonder what's planned for the parking lot next to the Holiday Inn. Both the Holiday Inn and the parking lot shouldn't sit there untouched for much longer.

HOLIDAY INN

could be bought out. concept done two years ago with expansion
on the existing south parking area. New hotel owner & operator?

We need a W hotel, Hardrock Hotel something really hip..........

Quixote · #**1075** Posted **Aug 23, 2006, 4:28 AM**

There are plans for a W Hotel at the Grand Avenue Project.

bjornson · #**1076** Posted **Aug 23, 2006, 4:42 AM**

I thought that was speculation. The hotel was talking to the developers in 2005 after Four Seasons was no longer in the works. From then on I haven't heard anything since. Too bad. It would have been better situated if it was Mandarin Oriental or Shangri-La.

danny1100 · #**1077** Posted **Aug 23, 2006, 7:03 AM**

Is the iconic tower of the grand ave project going to be a W hotel? Am I dreaming or is this a true? Can anyone out there confirm this info? There is a heaven.

D -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

There are plans for a W Hotel at the Grand Avenue Project.

citywatch · #**1078** Posted **Aug 23, 2006, 5:39 PM**

I like hearing about new condo or apt projs, but more now than ever before I don't want to get too

about any proposed devlpt until & unless I'm certain its funding is 100% guaranteed & til crews & equipment are actually showing up at the site where the proj is to be built. I say that because a lot of new construction in DT is dependent on builders being able to get X number of buyers paying X number of $ for a condo, or getting X number of tenants paying X number of $ in rent for an apt. So if both demand & prices start dropping alot in the future, many of the proposals mentioned here may no longer pencil out.

I know the devlpr of the Hanover apt bldg at Olympic & Fig said his proj no longer would make sense were it to be proposed today. I guess he meant that if they tried to recover the cost of construction & other expenses in today's climate, they'd have to charge rents way higher than most tenants could handle.

I saw this today & we're entering a time when everyone may need a rising level of patience & a willingness to be letdown:

Quote:

Hasan Ikhrata, director of planning and policy at the Southern California Assn. of Governments, said redevelopment and urban in-fill building accounted for 40% of the housing growth in Los Angeles County in the last decade. The rest of the building, he said, consisted largely of single-family homes in the desert and canyons to the north.

"Some people say that there's an overbuilding in development downtown," Ikhrata said. "But we don't see it from the prices and the demand." "We see cooling in the market," he added, but not significant price reductions in downtown Los Angeles compared with what is occurring in San Diego, where prices in the so-called urban core have dropped about 2% so far this year.

Last month, Southern California home sales fell to their lowest level in nine years as price appreciation slowed. In July, 22,712 homes closed escrow in the six-county region, a 27% drop from a year earlier, and prices rose at their slowest rate in more than six years, gaining 4.9% to a median of $492,000, according to DataQuick.

Cynthia Kroll of UC Berkeley said she, too, sees Southern California builders producing fewer single-family homes and apartments and more condominiums. But she believes the region is at the end of an extraordinary housing boom.

colemonkee · #**1079** Posted **Aug 23, 2006, 5:58 PM**

^ citywatch, did you even read that article? the author was being positive on downtown development, acknowledging that their is a cooling, but rebutting claims of overbuilding.

You also have to consider that any project that starts in the next six months will not be ready for 2+ years, giving the market at least some time to level off then recover.

colemonkee · #**1080** Posted **Aug 23, 2006, 5:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by danny1100

Is the iconic tower of the grand ave project going to be a W hotel? Am I dreaming or is this a true? Can anyone out there confirm this info? There is a heaven.

D -

Nothing has been confirmed on a W Hotel in the Grand Ave. project, so don't get too excited yet.